I arrived 15 minutes early at the northernmost point of Westminster Road, where I began scanning the verdant reeds for signs of birds. There were adult and juvenile Glaucous-winged gulls patrolling the distant shore and flocks of wheeling and diving Barn Swallows, whose deep swallow-tails and rufous breasts I could just make out in the heat mirages. Great Blue Herons stood sentry on every wooden post or long-dead tree that thrust up from the sun-baked earth.
Then, to my delight, the screeching grunt of a Virginia Rail erupted from the reeds not too far from where I was standing. This was answered by another Rail deeper in the reeds, followed by a third to my left! Needless to say, I never actually saw the Rails, but they were certainly vocal today in spite of the heat. This was corroborated by the other members of our small birding party, who heard them calling again later on.
Realizing that I was in the wrong place, I jogged along the dyke path until I reached Terra Nova’s River Road parking lot, where David, Noreen, and Dirk waited patiently (right in time for Marion’s arrival too). They caught me up on the birds they’d seen and heard: two Cedar Waxwings, two Northern Flickers, and the call of a Willow Flycatcher. A Ring-billed Gull perched atop a lamp post above us and a small flock of Mallards paddled through the algae-choked slough adjacent to the dyke path.
We then struck inland past the Adventure Playground, serendipitously bumping into Dottie, who had also arrived much earlier and decided to get a little birding done in the meanwhile. On the path, we came across a particularly productive bush, bountiful with berries and birds, and added American Goldfinches, House Finches, and Black-capped Chickadees to our list. There was even a Bewick’s Wren flitting about, and a nondescript juvenile “warblery” looking bird that we now suspect was a young Common Yellowthroat because we saw a brood of them with a handsome male further down the path, and they pretty much matched our observations.
Then, my mother rang me, who had also accidentally parked on Westminster, and so I beetled off to find her. On our way back, wandering the maze of pathways surrounding the pond, we saw an Osprey soaring overhead, and when we reunited with the group, they said they’d seen it too. So, no Cooper’s Hawk for us, but an Osprey isn’t a bad trade-off.
In the community garden, we marveled at the great pendulous marrows, gourds, and beans hanging from their vines. I considered swiping a few, but there were gardeners about us, and as much as I would have cooked that marrow to perfection, I didn’t want to ruffle any feathers. One or two Anna’s Hummingbirds zipped about, sometimes indistinguishable out of the corner of one’s eye from the large dragonflies that also zig-zagged around. Marion identified a beautiful jade-green dragonfly as a female Western Pondhawk.
Back in the denser, more heavily forested pathways, two juvenile Downy Woodpeckers scoured the branches right above our heads, jumping from perch to perch, clearly unfazed with our gawking presences right beneath them. Too bad that half the group had already wandered down the path and missed them! We also saw a few juvenile American Robins, Black-capped Chickadees performing acrobatics in the trees, and a lone Willow Flycatcher, which perched on a power cable, giving us all an excellent view of it singing its distinct “wheet-wheeo” melody.
Two hours later, we arrived back at where we’d started with 22 birds on our list. And while I thought that the lower-than-usual tally the late summer months bring would be a little disappointing, the day (and company) was so fine that we couldn’t help but really enjoy the outing!
Thea Beckman
Photos are on Flickr.
Delta Naturalists Society 
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